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WALK, TALK and CONNECT
If you have had an experience with breast cancer and would like to connect with others who have traveled along a similar path as you, I would like to invite you to join our Walk, Talk and Connect group in Kiama.
Our Retreats
Why Should I Attend A Reclaim Your Life After Breast Cancer Retreat?
Helping you discover your new normal. This is a phrase commonly used among cancer survivors, and it is an important stage of recovery.
Your treatment has ended, the scars are healing and to many you look fully recovered and ready to take up where you left off before your breast cancer diagnosis. Chances are, this is not how you feel.
Cancer is a life changing experience often forcing you to re-evaluate your values, beliefs, expectations, and priorities in life. This is completely natural when we are faced with our own mortality. Trying to explain this to family and friends can be a challenge because all they want is for things to go back to the way it used to be.
What people don’t see are the physical and emotional challenges a cancer survivor is faced with. Treatment forces your body through many changes and unfamiliar situations in ways you might never have expected. Fatigue, weight loss, weight gain, brain fog, hair loss, anxiety, neuropathy and of course, the elephants in the room, body image doubts and the fear of recurrence.
I have found in my research that breast cancer survivors who connect with other cancer survivors flourish more in their life post breast cancer than those who go it alone. In my professional opinion, I believe it is because you have a space to be heard and understood by others who have walked your path.
There is something reassuring when someone says, ‘I know exactly what you are going through.’ We are reminded in that instance that we are not alone. The weight is shared and you can finally breathe again.
Reclaim Your Life After Breast Cancer Retreats provide that safe environment to talk to other women who know and understand scanxiety, the invasive tests and exhausting treatments that were recently commanding your life.
On the retreat we talk about the side-effects and physical changes to your body. We also have room for discussion around the financial concerns of breast cancer. These are significant life concerns. Add cancer to the scenario and some days it can feel overwhelming. My thoughtfully designed retreats come from my years of experience as a breast cancer counsellor.
We teach women who have survived cancer how to reconnect with themselves, their hearts, and their community so they discover the freedom to live a strong and beautiful life. This weekend, you are allowed to be a breast cancer survivor. You are encouraged to embrace your womanhood as you take the opportunity to reflect, reconnect, and rediscover You!
For many women, my retreats are the first time since their diagnosis they have had to completely immerse themselves in rest, relaxation, learning, and to grow strong connections with other extraordinary women.
You will leave this retreat feeling recharged, inspired, and equipped with a deeper understanding of how to care for yourself in positive and healthy ways.
"Everything went so smoothly and I felt very free to choose the level of involvement I had in each activity. Lesley, you are great at spoiling people, helping others to believe in themselves and imparting knowledge, oh, and having fun."
Retreat Guest | February 2022
Support Groups & Workshops
We Talk About
Discovering The True Meaning of Self Care
Unpacking Body Image
Sexuality and Intimacy
Understanding Loss and Grief
Unpacking Body Image
Cancer changes how people look and how they feel about their body. When someone receives a cancer diagnosis, they might feel like their body has betrayed them, or they disassociate from it because it has become ‘a stranger’.
Often, cancer can even affect body image through the physical changes of treatments like chemotherapy, with hair loss and weight gain.
People who have breast cancer or have already undergone treatment might think differently about their body after a mastectomy. This is a dramatic, permanent change that leaves the body visibly different afterwards.
A major focus of the retreat is to understand it is still possible to love your new body as much as before, despite the changes. If you have experienced any of these feelings, the retreat will help you build a new and positive relationship with your body.
Let's Talk About Sex
It takes some time but eventually I hear the negative impact cancer can have on intimacy and sexual wellbeing. I am extremely aware of how sensitive and private this topic can be to talk about.
It really does take a professional counsellor to help navigate this delicate conversation which is why I returned to university for additional training in sexuality. It is important to me to know that I am fully qualified in this area both professionally and emotionally.
I have found a way to delve into it during the retreats where you will feel vulnerability slide into curiosity. Nervous giggles will evolve into belly laughs as you find there is a whole wide world of ways to improve your sexual intimacy.
Working With Loss & Grief
Grief is natural response to loss, and there are several reasons why someone may have these feelings during their cancer experience.
It can be about the loss of their old life. Loss of time spent being ill or in treatment. Loss of a healthy body or even the loss of life opportunities and the things cancer made someone miss out on. For some, treatment might have caused the loss of fertility or, in the case of breast cancer, one or both breasts. Feelings of grief can happen at any time during or after the diagnosis and treatment process.
I help you discover ways to reclaim some of those loses. I will show you ways to reconnect with your core self and without effort or persuasion, and reinvent yourself.
"There are not enough compliments I could give!!! Amazing Amazing Amazing! And fun! Everyone was so kind, appropriate, letting us talk and giving us space. Spoiled us. Laughed with us. Just wonderful."
Retreat Guest | February 2022
